calls to action

Dr. Mukwege and Eve Tour US in February

12/17/2008

Dr. Denis Mukwege Awarded United Nations Prize

Dr. Denis Mukwege of the Panzi Hospital in the DRC has been named winner of The United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights for 2008. Previous recipients of the award include Nelson Mandela, Amnesty International, Jimmy Carter, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Reverend Dr. Martin L. King.

Dr. Mukwege is the Director and Founder of the groundbreaking Panzi General Referral Hospital in Bukavu, South Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) where he performs life-saving fistula surgeries on girls and women who have been brutally raped and mutilated in the Congolese war.

V-Day and UNICEF have partnered with the Panzi Hospital to build the City of Joy, a safe house project which will be a refuge for healed women, survivors of rape and torture who have been left without family and community. City of Joy will offer a safe haven, providing educational and income-generating opportunities, and support women in becoming the next leaders of the DRC.

To coordinate with our V-Season 2009 and our Spotlight on the Women and Girls of the Congo, we are excited to announce the February TURNING PAIN TO POWER TOUR. Dr. Denis Mukwege, Director and Founder of the Panzi Hospital in Bukavu, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Eve will tour five major cities in the US - New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Atlanta, and Washington DC - to get the word out about violence against women and girls in the DRC and the efforts to end it. This tour will have a direct impact on what is happening in the DRC--a country rich in natural resources but weighed down by years of war and atrocities--by raising awareness and critical funds to save lives and provide refuge and support to a new wave of women leaders.

Dr. Mukwege is the godfather of the growing V-Men's movement. On the tour, he will address what motivates men to commit these crimes, and what men need to do and who they need to become to stop it. By sharing firsthand accounts and a psychological and physical understanding of sexual violence, Dr. Mukwege will shed light on what he calls 'sexual terrorism.' Through his work at Panzi, the doctor is modeling another way of being a man. By illustrating that it is not the majority of men who are raping in the Congo, but that the majority are silent there and everywhere, he encourages both men and women to be bold and stand up for the women of Congo.

The tour will be comprised of a series of educational and fundraising events. In each city, Eve will conduct a public interview with Dr. Mukwege about how to stop the ongoing femicide, what causes this level of violence and what life is like for women in the Congo.

Tour Schedule*

Wednesday, February 11, 8PM - New York, NY"Turning Pain To Power in the Congo - Dr. Denis Mukwege In Conversation with Eve Ensler"92nd Street Y - Kaufmann Concert Hall - Lexington at 92nd Street, NYCTickets: $27, on sale now For tickets and more info, visithttp://www.92y.org/shop/event_detail.asp?productid=T%2DLC5WL10

Sunday, February 22, 2PM - Atlanta, GADr. Denis Mukwege In Conversation with Eve Ensler Location: The Carter CenterTickets: ticket information to be announced

Wednesday, February 25 - Washington, DC (date to be confirmed)Dr. Denis Mukwege In Conversation with Eve EnslerLocation: Howard UniversityTickets: ticket information to be announced

*Events subject to change

Read 'The Never Ending War' By Eve Ensler and Stephen Lewis Now on Huffington Post

There is a modest rush to bring humanitarian aid to the Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). After weeks of escalating conflict, during which hundreds of thousands have been displaced, hundreds more women raped, and many civilians slaughtered, there is now the possibility that three thousand additional peacekeepers will be sent to DRC. There have been high-level meetings with militia leader Nkunda and Presidents Kabila of the Congo and Kagame of neighboring Rwanda. There is a new element of care and concern.

On Thursday December 11, Esther Chavez, Vagina Warrior and founder of Casa Amiga in the northern border city of Ciudad Juarez Mexico, was named the winner of Mexico's National Human Rights Award.

V-Day has been working with Esther and Casa Amiga since "The Vagina Monologues" was first produced in Mexico City ten years ago. In 2004, V-Day worked closely with Chavez to bring the issue of violence in Juarez to over 2,300 V-Day events worldwide through our annual spotlight campaign. The campaign featured a March on Juarez with women from all over the world traveling to Juarez in protest, and raised over $175,000 for local groups, including Casa Amiga, to assist them in their continued work to end the violence which continues to this day, with over 80 women murdered in the past year.

Chavez has been working tirelessly to assist the families of these women, and to help other survivors of violence in the region through her work as founder of Casa Amiga, a domestic violence and rape crises center.

"Her brave work in denouncing the crimes was key to awakening society, authorities, public opinion and the entire world to the cases of violence against women in Ciudad Juarez," President Felipe Calderon said as he presented the award.

"Events of extreme brutality define the daily life of my city," Chavez said. "Law enforcement, even with the necessary police investigations and punishment for crimes, will never solve the root problem, which is social inequality, poverty (and) a lack of educational opportunities."

Since registration opened in October, over 1,000 V-Day organizers have signed up to produce V-Day benefit productions of The Vagina Monologues, A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant and A Prayer, Any One Of Us: Words From Prison and screenings of V-Day's Until The Violence Stops and the PBS documentary What I Want My Words To Do To You in their colleges, high schools and communities.

From Bangkok to Belgrade, Rwanda to Rhode Island, V-Day organizers everywhere are bringing the issue of violence against women to the forefront of their communities and raising funds to help end it.

In addition, V-Day is proud to announce that over 500 women and men have already registered to hold Congo Teach-Ins with their family, friends and neighbors. V-Day is partnering with the Enough Project and STAND to offer this downloadable PowerPoint presentation about the crisis in the DRC. The PowerPoint is designed to educate individuals and communities about the history and current situation in the DRC. It is a powerful tool to activate and motivate the public to put pressure on elected officials and raise awareness and funds for V-Day projects on the ground.

Registration to hold a V-Day benefit event in your community is still open.